Wu Yang ordered the clerk to record the confessions of Cheng Hongtu and Song Bao word for word, and asked the two to press their handprints, and after confirming that they were correct, they were ready to be sent to the palace.

In the palace, Zhao Gouzheng accompanied Empress Wu to gossip for a while, and unconsciously talked about the recent hot discussion in the imperial court.

Empress Wu has been by Zhao Gou's side since he first ascended the throne, and has traveled all the way from north to south.

At the beginning of Zhao Gou's ascension to the throne, because the foundation was unstable, and then there was a Miao Liu mutiny, and his only son died of illness, and the successive blows made him nervous all the time, and Zhao Gou couldn't sleep at night when he was exiled at sea. For so many years, Zhao Gou couldn't give Queen Wu a son and a half daughter due to his own reasons, and he still felt a little guilty about her in his heart, so when the two sat opposite each other, they could be open and honest about the sensitive issue of Lichu.

After the Jingkang Change, the second emperor of Huiqin and the princes, princesses, and concubines in Beijing were almost wiped out, but the Taizong family was not the only bloodline of Zhao Gou. Zhao Gou lost his only son, and lost the fertility function for the purpose of stabilizing the throne, adopted Zhao Ying and Zhao Xuan of the Taizu line as adopted sons, almost 30 years, but Zhao Gou has never established a prince, with Zhao Gou's old age, the descendants of the Taizong family are ready to move. Those who called on the emperor to quickly establish a prince, and even asked the emperor to continue to pass the throne to the Taizong lineage, as time went by, these people formed different camps according to the masters who supported them, and these camps poured into each other, making stumbling blocks, and doing the emperor's work everywhere, even the ears of Empress Wu, who was in the harem, could not be purified.

Previously, Qin Hui's family in the court was dominant, monopolizing military and political power, and Zhao Gou was also happy to be a shopkeeper and handed over all the affairs of the court to Qin Hui and his party, and no one came to urge him to establish a prince for more than ten years.

Five years ago, Qin Hui died of illness, there was a power vacuum in the court, under several battles, the court was in turmoil, Zhao Gou could no longer pretend to be deaf and dumb to enjoy his peaceful life, so he had to recall a group of old ministers who were unwilling to rely on Qin Hui and go to work, such as the right minister Chen Kangbo, the secretary of the ministry Zhang Tao, the living house Yu Yunwen and so on, are all this case.

The first thing Chen Kangbo and others did after taking power was to ask for the cleansing of Qin Hui's power in the court.

At this time, Zhao Gou was not the court novice who ascended the throne hastily, and he also played the emperor's mental tricks and the way of "checks and balances". He first acquiesced to Chen Kangbo and others' purge of Qin Hui's forces, but Tang Siwei, who had nothing to do with Qin Hui on the surface, but was a firm supporter of Qin Hui's "surrender to the Lord and peace" line on the inside, was promoted to the left minister.

Zhao Gou thought that such a peaceful life could go on forever until he died. Who would have thought that the later emperor of the Jin State was quite restless, and after the success of seizing the throne, he first moved the capital, moved the imperial capital of the Jin State from Shangjing to Yanjing, and then overhauled the Bianjing Palace, and now he is conscripting troops, horses, shipbuilding, and weapons.

After Yan Liang's series of actions, even ordinary Song people knew what he wanted to do, Zhao Gong, as the emperor of the Song Dynasty, had a huge think tank, how could he not know the ambition of Emperor Jin?

But he just refuses to admit it, refuses to believe!

He doesn't want to fight, and he doesn't want to be a prince! And once he acknowledged the fact that the Jin State was going to attack the Song Dynasty, both of these were problems that he had to face immediately.

God knows, he is only the most unfavored son of Emperor Huizong, his biological mother came from a humble background, and only became pregnant with him by accident, because his mother was not liked by Huizong, causing the emperor to often forget that he still has such a son. In a vanity fair like the palace, worshipping high and stepping on low is the basic operation of everyone, not treated by the father and the emperor, and there is no maternal family to rely on, Zhao Gou has suffered a cold reception since he was a child, and he is used to seeing the white eyes and ridicule of the palace people, and in the palace he and his mother are not even as good as the slaves who have face in front of the master.

In such an environment, he stumbled and grew up, and finally survived until he finally left the palace to build a mansion, married a wife, had children, and had his own small family. However, after the Song and Jin alliances and the destruction of the Liao Dynasty, the Jin people were ready to move, and in order to appease the Jin people, the Song Dynasty decided to send a proton to the Jin people, and it was no surprise that this difficult and humiliating task was sent to him. He couldn't imagine what kind of trampling he would suffer in the Kingdom of Jin as the most unfavored prince and from a weak country?

But he had to go, the emperor's order was bigger than the sky, and there was no room for him to bargain!

What is very ridiculous is that he, the sacrifice sent to the Jin people to humiliate, escaped from the world in that danger of overthrowing the country, and his father, the emperor's brother, and other thousands of noble brothers and sisters became fish and meat on the Jin people's chopping board.

He was supported by a group of civil and military ministers to ascend the throne in health, and at first he did fantasize about calling Bainuo and waving his army to counterattack, drive out the Jinren, and regain the lost territory.

Reality slapped him in the face hard! The ministers have a hundred hearts, and most of the generals who have been suppressed for too long have become arrogant generals, and they are submissive to him on the surface, but secretly they have their own plans. He can only reuse and trust the eunuchs around him, but he annoyed a group of soldiers, causing the "Miao Liu disaster", in this catastrophe his only son died, and he lost his fertility, becoming the "eunuch emperor" that everyone laughed at, the court and the people also put the pot on his head, how could he not be aggrieved?

Therefore, as soon as he got the opportunity to conclude a peace treaty with the Jin State, he immediately reused Qin Hui, unjustly killed Yue Fei, declared himself a vassal to the Jin State, and pretended to be deaf and blind to the Jin State.

Qin Hui died five years ago, and the courtiers rejoiced, and wanted to pour the sewage of the ministers on Qin Hui, so as to inspire him to be a well-working Ming Jun, recover the rivers and mountains, and rejuvenate the Song Dynasty, but he refused, and told the main battle faction with a rare resolute attitude: "The policy of peace, cut off from my will, Qin Hui can praise me, how can it be defined by its survival!" (According to the History of the Song Dynasty)

The court is speculating about why this emperor would take sewage on himself, and he is not even afraid of leaving a reputation for eternity! Some people say that he is crazy, and some people speculate that he was given ecstasy by Qin Hui .......

No one knows that in the countless days when he was blinded and neglected in the palace, his greatest ambition was to be a rich man in a peaceful and prosperous world, not worrying about food and clothing, and enjoying the forest springs!

Fate pushed him to that supreme position, trying in vain to tie him to the shackles of his family and country, he didn't want shackles!